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ExTEACT of a Letter from R/A\ Alexander, Esq., giving 
an Account of a Eaid on his Property at Woodburn, 
in Kentucky, on tlie 6th February 1865. 



Matters have at length become so unsatisfactory, and 
life and property so unsafe in my part of Kentucky, that 
I have at last come to the determination of leaving my 
place, taking with me such stock as is likely to be stolen. 
I have been satisfied for some time that neither life or 
property were quite safe, but the vast expense of so large 
a move as I should be obliged to make deterred me from 
the . undertaking, till absolutely forced to make it. I 
believe you heard of the first guerrilla raid made upon me 
by five rascals, who took a number of horses, who were 
pursued, and from whom we took all but my race-horse 
Asteroid. I got a couple of my neighbours, very resolute 
men, to go over into the hills and get the horse, which was 
done with little cost, though at some risk, my friends 
paying the price of a good hack for my horse which tlie 
rascals had stolen. After this, I armed my men, and kept 
six armed watchmen, besides the labourers who could 
be called into service, making in all from 18 to 20 well 
armed men, all collected. My watchmen were placed at 
three points to give the alarm ; two at each of the stables, 
my training stables and stallion stables, and two at my 
house. 

Just a month ago, between sunset and dark, in the 
dusk of the evening, one of my men came in, and announced 
that a number of soldiers were coming down the lane. I 
ordered the house to be closed and barred up (all the front 
part, at least), got out the arms, and sent word to the men 
t^ be in readiness ; by this time, they came in two files into 
the kitchen yard ; I went out to see who they were, and, 
finding them clad in Federal overcoats, presumed that they 
were Federal soldiers. With my gun in my hand and a 
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pistol in my belt, I stepped into the door, and cried, 
"Halt V just as the column had gone half by me ; they 
halted and faced about at once, upon which I said, " What 
will you have, gentlemen ? " One of them answered, " We 
want provender for two hundred horses." I replied, " That 
is a pretty large order. I have provender in various places, 
but I have no place in which to feed so many horses." 
Upon this there was a pause for a brief space, and then 
another fellow said, " We are out pressing horses." In 
reply I said, " Show your order to press horses." Upon 
this, he and the whole line drew their pistols, and he said, 
" This is our order." I at once saw how the case stood, 
that they were guerrillas, and that they had me in their 
power, so, to make the best of a bad case, I said, " Well, I 
suppose, if you are bound to have horses, there is no 
necessity of a fight about it, but if you are disposed to 
have a fight, I have some men here, and we wiU give you 
the best fight we can." Upon this an old man, Captain 
Yiley, whom the rascals had as a prisoner and guide, and 
who has always shown himself my friend, spoke out, 
and said, "Alexander, for God's sake, let them have the 
horses ; the Captain says he will be satisfied if you wall let 
him have two horses, without a fight, or any trouble.'' 
Determined to get out of the scrape as well as I could, and 
seeing that the scamps had every advantage of me, I said, 
" If that be the case, the thing can be very easity arranged," 
and asked who was the captain ; a fellow answered that 
he was. I then asked him if this was the fact, that, if I 
would give him two horses without a fight, he would leave 
me and everything unmolested. He answered, " Yes ;" 
and I said in reply, " Then you shall have them, and as I 
am a man of my word, and consider that my word is as 
good as my bond, you may consider the matter settled, so 
let us shake hands on the bargain." I stepped out of the 
door Avhere I had stood during this time, and passed 
through the first rank, and shook hands with the fellow. 
Thinking that the matter was arranged, I went back to the 
door, when the fellow said, " March out your men, and 
deliver up your arms." I answered, " We have made a 



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bargain, and I am to give you two horses. You shall have 
the horses, but I will neither march out my men nor give up 
my arms." He then said, " Well, deliver up your arms, 
anyhow." I replied, *' Captain, I have these arms for my 
own protection. ^You said that if I would give you two 
horses without a contest, you would be satisfied to leave 
everything unmolested. I have agreed to let you have the 
horses, and I am going to keep my arms, but I assure you 
that a gun shall not be fired, However, to assure you that 
I am acting in good faith, I will send my arms into the 
house." His reply was, " Bo so, then, and if a gun is fired, 
I will burn up your whole place.^' I said to him, that if 
Sb gun should be fired it would be his fault. I then went 
half way up the long passage from the kitchen to the 
dining-room, and handed my gun and pistol to some of the 
servants who were there, telling them to put them away. 
D. S. (who, with his family, have been staying with me 
since the former raid) did the same with his gun and 
pistol ; but Nugent retained his arms and concealed himself, 
I know not where. 

On returning to the kitchen door, the Captain of 
the guerrilla band said, " Where are those horses ? I am 
in a hurry." I answered, '* They are in the stable there," 
pointing to the stable 'close to the house. *' Come, then," 
said he, " let us go to the stable," upcm which w«e all started 
for the stable. As we were g^mg off, I said, "This is 
rather bad walking " (as it had been raining more or less 
for several days, and the mud was about ankle deep) ; one 
of the fellows good-naturedly said, " Get up behind me." To 
make a joke of the matter, and to try to get upon as good 
terms as possible with them, I said, " Well, put your foot 
-out of the stirrup, and I will do so." He took his foot 
from the stirrup, and I mounted behind him, and thus we 
moved towards the stables. We had gone only a few steps 
when the horse began to kick pretty violently, upon which 
my friend said, " I reckon you had better get down." I 
answered that I had no objection, and so dismounted ; a 
few steps brought us to the stable near the house, where I 
had a pair of thorougli^bred mares, well broken to liarness. 



a thorough-bred horse I used as a saddle horse, a very 
fine animal, and some two or three others of less value. 
There I told the Captain that we should find one of 
the animals I proposed to give him. He inquired if it 
was a good one. I said " Yes, as good a§ could be found/' 
He then asked if I had not a horse called the bald 
horse, meaning a horse with a white in his face. I 
answered, that I had several horses answering this des- 
cription. He said, " I mean a horse known as the bald 
horse.'' I saw at once that the rascal was well informed 
as to my horse stock, and said, " I had such a horse." He 
then said that he must have liim. I stated to him that 
this horse was a good trotting horse, one that was valuable 
to me, but of comparatively little use to him, and that I 
had twenty horses that I could give him better suited to 
his use. He replied, that he must have him. Again I 
urged, that the horse was only valuable as a trotter, and 
though valuable to me, and one for which I could get a 
good price as a fast trotting horse, yet quite unsuited to his 
use. He at length said, that if the horse was one that was 
valuable to me, he was valuable to him, and that he must 
have him. I then asked, if he took the horse I first pro- 
posed to give him and this one, if he intended to take 
any of my race-horses. He replied, that he must have 
two of them. 

Having ascertained that these rascals did not intend 
complying with the agreement made with me as to 
the horses they were going to take, I remembered a 
letter of warning I had received, some two or three weeks 
before, informing me that a band of guerrillas would make a 
raid on me, and, after taking many of my best horses, 
intended taking me off, with the object of getting a ransom 
from me for my release, and I determined to give them the 
slip, if possible. I said to the Captain, that the bald horse 
was in my trotting stable on the opposite hill, pointing to 
the stable, and that my man Hull had the key. He desired 
that Hull should be sent for, upon which I volunteered to 
go for liim, which he permitted. I went off' to the brick 
house, close at hand, where the men boarded, and found 



Hull putting OB his boots, which he had pulled off on get- 
ting to the house from the stables. I said to him that these 
men had asked for the bald horse, and so insisted on having 
him that I feared we would be obliged to give him to them, 
but if he could give them any other horse in his place he 
must do so, and then started with him from the brick 
house. As he went though the kitchen yard, he said, " I 
think Henry has the key of that stable/' I at once said I 
would look up Henry, and leaving him went towards the 
kitchen door ; there I found four horses, two with riders 
on them and two with empty saddles, I thought two of 
the fellows had gone in for water, though, when I passed 
into the kitchen, T did not see them. Those at the door 
did not say anything to me as I passed by them. I pro- 
ceeded through the kitchen, up the long passage to the 
dining-room, and, upon getting to the dining-room door, 
found two of the guerrillas there, one with his back to me 
and near the door, the other opposite to me and nearer the 
outer door, which opens into the porch towards the garden, 
which door I had had barred up ; the man nearest me had 
his pistol cocked and presented at Mrs. S., who, I think, had 
a child in her arms, and who stood near the fireplace ; at the 
same time he ordered her to get the rest of the arms, which 
order I heard as I entered; the other man, farthest from me 
and who faced me, had his arms full of guns of all sorts, 
which he had got from the table where S.'s and my arms 
had been put by the servants, and from the corners of the 
room, where stood my father's old rifle, that he had brought 
from Virginia with him when he came a settler to Ken- 
tucky, one of Alic's, and some two or three of mine, of 
various sorts and sizes. He seemed quite loaded down with 
guns. The other occupants of the room were the nurse, who 
had a child in her arms, and little Mary S., both of whom, 
as well as Mrs. S., were nearly frightened to death. 

Hearing the fellow order Mrs. S. to get the rest of the arms, 
I stepped into the room and got between the two men ; taking 
a hasty look at the man with the guns, who seemed rather a 
good-natured sort of fellow, I faced the man with the pistol, 
and said, in a firm tone, *' The Captain says, if I will give 



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him two horses, without a fight or any trouble, I can keep 
my arms, and I am going to keep them." As soon as I said 
this, the fellow faced half about, and, presenting his pistol 
at my breast, about 18 inches off, said, "D — you, deliver 
up the rest of those arms, or I will shoot you/' As quick 
as thought, I knocked the pistol away from the line of my 
body, and seized the fellow ; I saw in an instant that he had 
been drinking just about enough to make him do anything, 
and this seemed the only course I had to take. We stood 
close to the door which opens into the passage, and I made 
an effort to throw him out of the room, fearing the pistol 
might go off and shoot some one in the room. I was unable 
to throw him out at the first effort, but as I had seized 
him in a way that I had my left shoulder against 
his right shoulder, and was thus somewhat behind him, 
in making the effort his right knee came in contact 
with ony left ; and it instantly occurred to me that I 
should trip him ; so, lifting him, I advanced my left leg, 
and throwing my whole weight against him, at the same 
moment giving him a twist to the left, we fell together out 
of the door and into the passage, about eight or nine inches 
lower than the floor of the dining-room. I had a little the 
best of the fall, as he was undermost, and in attempting 
to rise he called to the other man to shoot me, that I was 
killing him. I took a hasty glance at the man who stood 
with his arms full of guns, who seemed taken quite by 
surprise by my actions. He, in answer to the other 
fellow, said, " He is not armed ; he cannot hurt you much." 
Just then we rose together, I still holding on to the fellow 
with the same grip, my arras encircling him just at the 
elbow joint, so as to pinion him ; the fellow made a violent 
effort to get away, and again called out to the other to shoot 
me ; as I saw that he might get loose from me and would 
most certainly shoot me if he did, I made up my mind to 
give him another fall, just as the other called out to me, 
" Let him go, Mr. Alexander." I said, " I will not let him 
go ; he will shoot me, as I have no arms." Again the fellow 
made an effort to get loose, and giving him the benefit of 
my knee a second time, down we came together, I still 



retaining my grasp on him ; this time we fell against an 
iron safe placed opposite the dining-room door, and 
against the wall in the passage, my elbow rubbing against 
the door of the safe, and his arm, in the hand of which he 
held his pistol, must have struck the edge or corner of the 
safe, for the fellow said, that I had broken his ai-m (which, 
however, was not the case). Again we rose up together, 
for I could not hold him down, though I could retain my 
hold on him, which I had at first taken, and, just as we were 
about rising, the man with the guns said again, " Let him 
go," adding, that he would protect me. As we rose, I said, 
*^ Do you promise me on the word and honour of a gentle- 
man, that you will protect me?" He said, **I will,"' or 
** I do,"and thinking that this was as good a bargain as I 
was likely to be able to make, I let him go ; he made a strong 
efibrt to get away just as I released him, and I, at the same 
time, gave him a shove, so that he went through the door 
towards the kitchen ; the other fellow stepped in between us, 
and kept him moving till they turned into the kitchen. I 
watched them till they disappeared from the passage, and 
following them quickly, bolted the middle door between 
the passages, and also the door through which I shoved 
the fellow, and returning to the dining-room, where I found 
Mrs. S., the nurse and the children, I told her not to open 
the doors on any account, and if the fellows should return 
and inquire for me, to say that I had gone out. 

This done, I passed to the front part of the house, and out 
through the door of the little dressing-room which you had 
when at Woodburn. I went at once to the upper part of 
the garden, hoping to see what the rascals were at, from 
thence ; but it had begun to grow dark, and I only saw that 
they had made a fire of straw, &c., in front of my trotting 
tables, and were getting the horses out. I then hastened to 
Lexington's stables, and told my man there to take out such 
animals as were most valuable, that they were likely to 
steal ; I also sent a boy to the training stable to tell the 
trainer to remove most of the valuable horses ; but before 
the boy got there, a portion of the rascals had got there 
and taken out four horses. They asked for " Asteroid,'' but 



in the dusk of the evening, the trainer gave them an 
inferior horse, and so saved the best horse in my stable ; 
they got " Norwich," brother to Norfolk, however, a four 
year old mare, that was a good one, and a three year old 
filly by " Lexington/' which we think well of, besides the 
colt they mistook for " Asteroid," making four from my race 
stable ; they also got four from my trotting stable, and four 
from my riding-horse stable, and three more from various 
places, making 15 horses in all. The most valuable of the 
whole was the trotting horse the Captain of the band seemed 
to be so anxious to get hold of, and he was worth fully 
as much as any horse I own, except *' Lexington" himself; 
and, I doubt, if I would have taken 1 5,000 dollars in green- 
backs for him ; the second most valuable, was my trotting 
stallion " Abdallah ;" both these are dead, the first from a 
wound in the hock ; the second, being captured by the 
Federals, was ridden to death by a Federal soldier ; the 
third in value, " Norwich," was still in the hands of the 
guerrillas, when I last heard from home. Six horses and 
mares are still missing, including the two which are dead, 
and their value is not less than 32,000 dollars. 



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